220 THE CRUISE OF THE ' VUBAQOA.' 



Ifhe paths appeared to be constantly retiiiiiing njion them- 

 selves, and we were alwaj^s finding ourselves nearly at the 

 same spot ; so much so, that I began to think that it would 

 be extremely difficult for us to retrace our steps, liad we 

 not the sun and mountains for our guiding points. We 

 found large lianyau trees with their adventitious roots 

 hanging down to the earth, and on wliich weie hung 

 quantities of yams, for the purpose, I conjecture, of saving 

 them from the ravages of tlie pigs which were rimning about 

 everywhere in considerable numbers. Tliere must also be 

 some of these animals in a wild state, if I may so judge 

 from some sixty lower jaws witli long tusks, wliich I saw 

 arranged upon a fence along with six jaws of porpoises, 

 and two skulls upon two points of the fence, which were no 

 doubt the rehcs of a cannibal feast. In one place I observed 

 some twenty posts, from ten to twelve feet high and about 

 fourteen inches in diameter, placed in a circle a foot distant 

 from each other. In the centre there was one larger than 

 the others, on which was rudely sculptured a man's face. 

 These posts were hollowed out from eigliteen inches to two 

 feet in length, so as to be sonorous when they were struck ; 

 and this is the use they are put to by the natives, who 

 come and dance around them, of which the worn-out ap- 

 pearance of the turf about them was proof ' 



' At Vate, Erskine was received in a building 100 feet by 28, in which 

 the interior of the roof was concealed by the bunches of bones hanging 

 from the rafters: 'they were of all descriptions — vertebras of pigs, 

 or points of their tails, clusters of merry-bones of fowls, bones of every 



